Six murders have occurred within the last 24 hours in this country. It is a bit difficult to fathom for a country of approximately 1.5 million people, isn't it? Well perhaps for you, it is. Not for me. Not for many who live here. It is quite commonplace now actually. So much so in fact, that if we do not hear of a murder on any given daily newscast, we would anticipate 2 the next day.
And we should expect at least one murder everyday, or so said some news broadcaster when the murder toll hit 365 for the year, about a week or two ago.
"One death is a tragedy. One thousand deaths is a statistic." - some saying
And how true it is. When the murder rate began seriously climbing a few years ago, it became difficult to feel true sorrow for each individual family of a murder victim. How can it be? Perhaps 15 years ago, when murders were rare, cataclysmic events, the news stations could afford to broadcast full features on the deceased - the person's family, thwarted future intentions, and how sadly that person will surely be missed. Now, there are so many to fit into a news segment, the news presenters could barely afford each 45 seconds of commentary before moving on to the next.
Is that what a life is worth now? A 45 second spot on the news? It does not seem to mean much else, really.
If I die, who will care? No one but my family, I suppose. No one else will be able to spot me among thousands of other deaths. Unless, of course, mine is a particularly gruesome death. I smile as I consider the possibilities.
I hope to leave this country, albeit temporarily, in about 4 years or so to work in the Cayman Islands. Or perhaps St. Lucia. I am not quite sure yet where I intend to spend 2 years working on contract for the same company for which I work now (just in a different territory). My plans were to choose, at the end of that 2 year stint, whether I intend to stay in that foreign country, or return permanently to mine. I always thought that if this crime situation does not improve by the time I need to decide, I would be leaving my country for good.
Now I'm wondering if I'll make it that far. It could happen. I already live in a crime prone area, and several persons have already gone down in the statistical book under "collateral damage". The only thing we can be sure of is possibilities.
It really hurts me to write this. It's difficult to sit here and type away while you know that everyone around you is being murdered over drugs, turf wars on land that they don't own, petty machismo arguments, and money. Sometimes I wonder if it is sane to continue, going about your business as usual, go to work, to school, go partying, even stay at home watching tv with your family, as people are getting gunned down everywhere. Is this really how it is supposed to be? Should there not be some sort of action?
Sure, people are marching. There was the "Death March" by the Keith Noel 136 Committee, where people were asked to sign petitions asking the government to do something, pass legislation, and enforce it. The usual stuff that does not really achieve that much, but is generally an effort towards some good.
But then people infuse racism into it. Sure, the Committee is noticeably comprised of the White and light coloured rich minority in the country. But like Dale Enoch, former president of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago, said, these people live here too.
It's true that when crime was isolated events occurring primarily in the poor areas the Whites rarely chanced, they never said much of anything about crime. Now that it is affecting them - in terms of possibly waning foreign investments, kidnappings, and the like, of course they would say something. I am not certain if people expect them to sit back and do nothing for fear that they would be labled as just a bunch of rich people who only care when it affects them.
It is extremely frustrating. We cannot seem to band together as a country to do anything. Even the government that temporarily united with the opposition party, under the pressure of the Business Community (primarily Syrians - or the Trini Whites) and the Keith Noel Committee, to create some Crime legislation, are back to calling each other names again.
I remember quite a few months ago, the Prime Minister stating that he had brought in members of the United States FBI, to assist in the crime situation. He never really went into any detail as to the purpose of these agents. I personally hoped their purpose was to audit the Police. I did not want these FBI solving our crimes - only finding out why our local authorities appeared incapable of doing it themselves. I wanted them to help root out the corrupt police officers that everyone knows are rampant within the Police Force.
I remember watching some documentary on Las Vegas back in its golden era when it was overrun with crime and the Mob. At the time alcohol was supposed to be illegal, yet it was flowing. The mob owned half of the police force and some judges. So the story went. Then some president or someone... my memory fails me at the moment... banded together a special intelligence unit, which he personally investigated to insure their loyalty to the law, to help uproot the criminal elements that plagued the city. And it took far less than several years to work.
Honestly, I fantasise about such a thing happening here. It's pathetic really.
And saddening.
If the country does not pull itself from this crime-ridden rut, who will care really? When I look at the international news - BBC or CNN - and I see any of the nations of Africa, with its Black Presidents or Prime Ministers dictating their crime-ridden countries, slaughtering whole sections of their populace in the name of politics and the like, I do not see the US rushing in to right those wrongs. What is Trinidad but another unruly country run by Blacks (in Trinidad, anyone who is not White, Syrian, or Chinese, is considered Black)? People from the US and other civilised nations will see us as little more than another nation run by Blacks unable to remove the barbarism that dominated our past even in these modern times. We're only slightly above the Middle Easterners, and that's not saying much.
I really hate where we are.
And it's 11:00pm. It's time to cut this ramble short (short - ha), and prepare for bed. Work tomorrow. Time to go back to pretending that everything is fine, until another newscast begins.